MADISON, Wis. -- A company backed by Republican Senate candidate Eric Hovde received more than $2 million from the federal stimulus program that he claims to oppose, a revelation that drew reproach from two GOP opponents whom Hovde has criticized for accepting stimulus dollars themselves.

Hovde sits on the board of ePlus and was paid $133,200 as a director of the company, according to a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel report. Hovde has described himself as the "second-largest shareholder" of the Herndon, Va.-based company, which offers computer services and products such as data centers and security to its clients.

The company received dozens of grants totaling more than $2.3 million in recent years from a number of federal departments, according to a government website that tracks stimulus spending. The website says the grants came from the stimulus law passed by the Democratically-controlled Congress and President Barack Obama in 2009.

In addition to providing computer services and products, ePlus also offers to help hospitals take advantage of stimulus funds to install electronic medical records, according to the company website.

Hovde's campaign said Hovde "beneficially owns less than 15 percent, both directly and indirectly," of ePlus, meaning he has nowhere near a controlling stake in the company.

Hovde will face three other Republicans in a primary next month in the race to replace retiring U.S.

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Sen. Herb Kohl. The winner will take on Democratic U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin in November.

Two of Hovde's GOP rivals responded to the revelation with sharp criticism.

"Eric Hovde has spent the past 24 years in Washington, D.C., selling access and leveraging government-assisted transactions," said Brian Nemoir, a spokesman for former Gov. Tommy Thompson. "The latest revelation that Hovde has benefited from stimulus dollars is nothing but business as usual."

During the campaign, Hovde has criticized the stimulus law and the other GOP primary candidates -- Thompson and former U.S. Rep. Mark Neumann -- who also benefited from it. Neumann owns solar-energy companies that received almost $660,000 in stimulus funds.

Neumann spokesman Chip Englander said it didn't make sense for Hovde to criticize those solar-energy subsidies. Englander pointed to a Hovde company newsletter from November 2008 that argued for the federal government to help support the renewable-energy industry.

A Thompson company also benefited from the stimulus program. Logistics Health Inc., a La Crosse company that Thompson helped lead for more than five years, received three stimulus grants totaling $516,548. That funding came from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, where Thompson served as secretary under President George W. Bush.

Thompson left Logistics Health last year after the company's sale to OptumHealth of Golden Valley, Minn., was finalized.

Nemoir said the stimulus funds came in the months after Thompson left the company. He also said Logistics Health never applied directly for stimulus money but received it indirectly from the federal Centers on Disease Control and Prevention.

Thompson said he was against stimulus funds, and also said he wasn't aware the company sought or received the grants. Even so, he defended the fact that Logistics received the money.

"You can be opposed to a federal thing, but if (the federal government) put it up there, why wouldn't a company be able to apply for it?" Thompson said. "Why shouldn't a Wisconsin company be able to have the same opportunity to succeed as a company outside (the state)?"

A spokesman for Baldwin criticized both Hovde and Thompson for accepting government aid even as they opposed it for others.

"They both believe there is one set of rules for them and another set of rules for everyone else," Baldwin spokesman John Kraus said in a statement.

The fourth Republican competing in next month's primary against Hovde, Thompson and Neumann is state Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald.